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When does automation pay for itself?

List the repetitive tasks your team does. The calculator shows how many hours a year they free up, what that is worth, and the most you can spend on automating them and still come out ahead — before you have asked anyone for a quote.

Repetitive tasks

Write each task separately to see which is worth most. Only include work that follows clear rules.

    Cost of time

    What does an hour of this work cost the company?

    The automation

    How much of the work goes away, how long it takes, and what it costs if you have a price.

    Exceptions still reach a person; one hundred percent is rare.
    Advanced assumptions

    These defaults are deliberately cautious. Replace them if you have better numbers.

    Result

    These are example numbers. Enter your own tasks to see your real result.

    Hours freed per year
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    Value per year
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    Value recovered over 36 months

      Hover, touch, or use the arrow keys to inspect each month.

      Month-by-month table

      The most worth spending

      The most you can spend on building and maintaining it and still be paid back by that month, counted from the start of the project.

      By end of monthBudget ceiling

      If the savings fall short

      Estimates tend to be optimistic. See how far payback slips if the savings come in lower.

        Which task first?

        Tasks are ordered by the value they free up. Usually one or two carry most of it.

          How we calculate

          1. Yearly hours of a task = count × times a year × minutes ÷ 60.
          2. Hours freed = yearly hours × share automated.
          3. Value = hours freed × cost per hour (monthly cost ÷ productive hours a month) + errors avoided × cost per error.
          4. The build cost counts from day one; savings and upkeep start on the day it goes live.
          5. Payback is the first month in which the value recovered exceeds everything spent.

          Not included: inflation, tax, the time value of money, and the value of training or morale. This is an estimate, not a quote.

          Let’s test these numbers on your real work

          In a short technical call we listen to your tasks, tell you which ones really automate, and what a sound price looks like.

          Request a technical call

          Sending writes a summary of this calculation into the request form for you; you can edit it before submitting.